Building a culture of sustainability for climate resilience

Climate change is no longer a distant risk for India; it is shaping our daily lives right now. Between January and September 2025, India experienced extreme weather on 270 of 273 days, with floods, storms, heatwaves, and landslides reported across all 36 states and Union Territories. These events killed over 4,000 people and damaged tens of thousands of homes, crops and livestock, turning climate statistics into personal tragedies.

As we observe World Environment Day, the conversation must move from “climate is real” to “what do I do today?”

The environment is not separate from our routines; it is the silent infrastructure behind every glass of water, every commute, every meal. Governments and businesses carry a major share of responsibility, but climate resilience will also be shaped by millions of small decisions made in Indian homes, offices and neighbourhoods.

In our cities, the crisis shows up in familiar moments. A sudden cloudburst floods the same road you use to reach work. A heatwave turns a local park into a furnace. A tanker arriving late changes how your family cooks, cleans and even showers. Urban India already uses about 135 litres of water per person per day at home, and this demand sits atop a declining per capita water availability nationally. As cities grow, the stress on water, energy, mobility and waste systems will only increase unless our behaviour changes with it. 

Everyday choices matter because they scale. Choosing public transport, walking or cycling more often cuts congestion and air pollution. Switching off lights, using efficient fans and ACs, and setting slightly higher cooling temperatures reduces pressure on already strained grids. These acts may feel too small to matter, but multiplied across crores of citizens they become a quiet, powerful climate strategy.

Water and plastic are two places where our personal choices are especially visible – and invisible. On the surface, we think of taps, buckets and showers, yet only around 5 per cent of humanity’s water footprint comes from domestic use. About 85 per cent is hidden in the food we eat and the products we buy, particularly animal-based foods and water-intensive crops. Globally, an average consumer “uses” roughly 5,000 litres of water a day once this hidden footprint is counted. 

Clothes tell the story plainly. Producing a single cotton T-shirt can require about 2,700 litres of water – enough drinking water for one person for nearly two and a half years. When we buy more than we need, discard quickly and chase fast fashion, we are quietly exporting water stress from our rivers and aquifers to cotton-growing landscapes. 

Plastic is similar. India generates nearly 3.9 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, and only about 60 per cent is recycled. The rest is landfilled, burned or leaks into our drains, lakes and rivers. Households are the largest source of plastic waste, and water and soft drink bottles make up a big share of what we throw away. The result is all around us: plastic-clogged stormwater drains that worsen urban flooding, floating bottles in lakes, and microplastics now detected in our water and food. 

So what can one person do without feeling overwhelmed?

At home, shorter showers, fixing leaks and reusing grey water for plants are important, but the bigger wins often lie on our plates and in our shopping baskets. Planning meals, storing food properly, serving only what can be eaten and composting kitchen scraps reduce both methane from food waste and the vast water embedded in every grain, fruit or vegetable. Choosing more plant-based meals, millets and pulses, and slightly reducing high-footprint animal products can quietly shrink our water and carbon footprints without sacrificing nutrition. 

The same principle applies to what we wear and buy. India’s traditions of handloom, repair and reuse are deeply sustainable at heart. Choosing fewer, better-made garments, repairing clothes, sharing or thrifting, and preferring natural or certified sustainable fibres means that thousands of litres of water and energy are saved before an item ever reaches our cupboard. 

On plastic, simple habits add up: carrying a reusable bottle and cloth bag, refusing unnecessary cutlery and sachets, and segregating dry and wet waste at source so recyclers can actually recover value. When Resident Welfare Associations or office complexes adopt these practices together, they can cut plastic leakage into nearby drains and lakes dramatically and support safer livelihoods in the informal recycling sector. 

All of this links back to the blue and green spaces that keep our cities alive. Urban lakes, wetlands and floodplains act as natural sponges, soaking up intense rainfall, slowing floodwaters and recharging groundwater. Studies in large river basins such as the Brahmaputra show that rejuvenated wetlands can reduce flood peaks by up to nearly 30 per cent in tributaries and cut flood-threat days in downstream cities by as much as 60 per cent. National guidelines now recognise that well-managed urban lakes contribute to water supply, runoff control and groundwater recharge. 

This is where collective action becomes real. The lake you walk past on a Sunday morning is not just scenery; it is part of your city’s climate defence system. Citizen groups can adopt local water bodies, organise regular clean-ups, push for sewage and solid waste to be diverted away from them, and work with municipal bodies on nature-based solutions such as rain gardens, permeable pavements and restored wetlands. When communities reclaim these spaces as safe, inclusive commons, they also rebuild a relationship of respect with water and nature. 

India already has a head start in this transition. Our per capita emissions are still below the global average, yet they are rising as we develop. Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) was launched to nudge citizens and communities away from mindless use-and-throw habits towards mindful, circular living, through everyday “LiFE actions” and a mass movement of “Pro-Planet People”. These lifestyle changes, multiplied across 1.4 billion people, can strongly support India’s climate goals, including its net-zero ambition for 2070. 

World Environment Day is therefore an invitation, not just an event. It invites us to look at our own water footprint, our plastic trail, our relationship with the neighbourhood lake, and to ask: what is one habit I can change this week, and who can I invite to change it with me? Climate resilience will not come from policy alone. It will grow wherever citizens, communities, markets and nature are pulling in the same direction – one small, consistent choice at a time.

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